The Daily News’s longtime chief pop music critic Jim Farber wrote a piece for his paper called “Stop being so sensitive! Burly men become girly men, turning pop music into a wuss-case scenario.” It opens with the question: “When did the wimps inherit the earth?” From there he explores why the “hip-oisie” are smitten with Sufjan Stevens, Antony, Iron & Wine, Devendra, Grizzly Bear, the National, Fleet Foxes, Vampire Weekend, Death Cab For Cutie, Bright Eyes, the Decemberists, and the “latest uber wimp” (his main focus), Bon Iver. He tosses out funny phrases — “high-brow/low-virility,” for one — and makes good use of Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain in reference to the over-romanticization of Justin Vernon’s mono-induced cabin retreat, but he ultimately loses his course. For starters, offering the Black Keys as “perhaps the only hard act of hipsters who make any attempt to even things out,” is not a good look. There’s more:

I’ve been thinking aloud for a while — as I wrote in my Liars Double Take or again in my 18 Dark Bands To Watch — that in 2011 your average indie-rock kid has gotten more adventurously dark and, if not exactly “tough,” at least “tougher.” There’s plenty of “Dad Rock” and unrepentant twee, sure, but think about the ascent of longtime favorites Fucked Up into the record collection’s of ex-Cold War Kids fanatics. The interest in Iceage’s bloody shows. Ex-Decemberists acolytes memorizing Tyler, The Creators’ lyrics. St. Vincent fans discovering Big Black. The crossover of Krallice into non-metal quarters. (And Prurient’s potential crossover of the same sort.) I’d argue that things were more varied in the ’90s — consider Karp, Some Velvet Sidewalk, Lync, Beat Happening, and Lois Maffeo, etc., coexisting on K — and then got especially wimpy and hive-minded around the time “Blog Rock” broke. Recently, though, there’s been a slight return to that older, more open-ended form. Maybe it’s all the reunions. Or general nostalgia. Or puberty. But hell, shit’s not as sunny or vitamin-deficient as it was in 2005.

Whatever the case, Farber’s reading of Bon Iver is funny, and I appreciate the sense of history he brings to the piece as well as his attempt to rope-in hip-hop and other genres, but ultimately the only thing he proves is that he needs to listen to more music. Check out the conclusion:

Those seeking something with true bluster and force these days will have to sate themselves with an event like the Big Four tour, which, on Sept. 14, will bring to Yankee Stadium no less rippling a crew than Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth — all acts that date back to the ’80s.

When will our own decade create some smart and innovative equivalent to that — or at least to grunge? Maybe now is the time to kick off a movement for the quest: Enough with the sweet-souled stars. Can we please bring back the brutes?

Well, here’s hometown heroes Tombs plus 25 other brutes. Though we don’t need to go into metal: How about the appropriately monikered NYC crew The Men? Who are some of your favorites? And any thoughts on the thesis, wimps? (Like, why so focused on the testes?)

It’s simple different music for different times.
Yeah those bands he mentioned are from the 80’s, there are todays versions of them kind of bands for those who need heavy metal music. But right now this is the kind of music that alot of people that are now young adults have grown up with in there teens listening to.

The point he’s made had made me angry because i like quite alot of the bands he mentioned.
I think he’s just making an article for the sake of it. It doesn’t really matter. He wont change what will be

“So why has this happened just now? Why has cutting-edge rock become so achingly elevated and precious? Like everything, a key part of the blame can be laid at the keyboard of the Internet. Not only has this game-changer made the average listener more sophisticated (at the cost of some immediacy), it has dismantled much of mass stardom in favor of cults, a configuration far more open to something arcane.

Consider, too, the role of college, where this music finds a key part of its fan base and identification. The new generation of college kid isn’t the frathouse brat of old, fist-pumping his way to glory. It’s a cool, smart, evolved soul, sporting skinny jeans and aspiring toward polysexuality, or at least moving against any form of gender rigidity. To these folks, the phallic guitar of yore represents the moldiest of oldies, a cornball signifier of a sad time when numb-headed musclemen ruled the world.

That shift in thinking is actually a positive one on some levels, and — except in the case of Bon Iver — the change has actually made for some of the most inventive, and just plain different-sounding, music in decades.”

You can even find more recent examples, e.g. Terrible Love, Afraid of Everyone, Conversation 16. These songs are all pretty emotional, but they sort of thunder and crash and I would say the subject matter is approached in a pretty ‘masculine’ way. What this “journalist” fails to understand is that masculinity is not synonymous with brutish dumbass-ery.
Even with a couple of the other bands, I think The King is Dead by the Decemberists and The People’s Key from Bright Eyes go a long way to opening up indie to more traditional ‘rock’ in indie-see Down by the Water from the former and Jejune Stars from the latter.
There’s always the likes of Mogwai or Mastodon to help those random bursts of testosterone.

Hold on, read the article. He has a point. He lists the positives that come with Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes. He calls Helplessness Blues his favorite album of the year. The article is more of a puff piece than anything, and it is written that way. It isn’t criticism in the true sense of the word.

The comments, on the other hand, scare me.

All that said, there is plenty of amazing rock and roll out there. Mogwai continues to slay, and he conveniently left out My Morning Jacket.

It’s simple… people listen to chill music when they wanna chill, metal music when they want metal, etc. Do people really ever only listen to one genre? I’ll listen to Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, James Blake, Nina Simone, Tune-Yards, the Sword, Death From Above 1979, Hank Williams, Health, Titus Andronicus, Fucked Up, Les Savvy Fav, the Velvet Underground, tons more.

It’s all about what you’re feeling at the time… think of all the music festivals with differently ‘themed’ stages (metal, indie, rap, etc) and the fans that will stop by each of them throughout the day. Pigeonholing musical taste is ridiculous.

“Do people really ever only listen to one genre?”
Believe it or not, YES. There are plenty of people that ONLY listen to metal, only listen to radio rap, only listen to jam bands, etc. Those people are called losers.

And hey Stereogum – Farber is waaay off base with most of this but he does have a point with the “over-romanticization” comment…there are too many outlets (like blogs) that put too much important on the backstory or image of artists, when the only thing that should matter is the music itself. who gives a shit if he made the record in a cabin in the woods? if you found out he made it in a million-dollar studio in LA, would you like the music less?

The term for girly music is vasectomy rock. It’s good, it just lacks male energy, which is odd when a many a man are swooning to it. This movement is a response to men oppressed by a generation of power females dominating the cock pit.

I genuinely think that the “brutes” Farber is wishing for, died with the over-glorification of self-destruction. Hipsters don’t see heroine addicts as role models. Sorry Grunge. Sorry 80s coke-fueled metal. Sorry Jim, Janis and Jimi.

This is a gross over-generalization, but I think it’s somewhat valid. Can’t imagine Justin Vernon or members of Arcade Fire OD’ing anytime soon.

I think guys that write articles like this feel they need to prove something (to themselves if nobody else). If you derive your sense of masculinity from something other than the music you listen to, I don’t think you need to worry about people like that.

The author pic doesn’t really lead me to believe he’s much of a man’s man, himself.

although i do enjoy a lot of this so-called new “girly rock,” i’m with you. the jesus lizard and butthole surfers were great, although a bit thrashy per my tastes. my favorite music will forever be the GBV, pavement, pixies, sebadoh, breeders etc. brand of 90s indie rock. stylish, smart, catchy as hell, and no absence of bite and manly guitar moments.

and i concur with the above poster that the national shouldn’t be lumped into farber’s wimp bands.

Ugh, can we stop with this sensitive = feminine/wimpy, aggressive = manly B.S.? Bands and artists like PJ Harvey, Bikini Kill, Kim Gordon, Kim Deal and Hole were also making rock music with “manly” guitar moments… often about female or feminist issues for that matter.

very true. note the inclusion of the breeders, who are one of my favorites. “manly guitar” and “girly rock” were intended to be a bit tongue-in-cheek; no doubt that there are plenty of women who bring the manly guitar (and before you get mad, that was a joke right there). alls i’m saying is i miss all those bands and that style of music – as well as the females you’ve listed.

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